a rooftop view OF JERUSALEM and CRUSADER ruins at NeBi SamuEl

Nothing beats the view of Jerusalem from the roof of the mosque at Nebi Samuel. In fact, the Crusaders of the First Crusade were so overcome on obtaining their first sight of Jerusalem from here that they called this hill Montjoie.﻿ A very nice feature of this park is that many of the archeological ruins are explained by signs with pictures of what the buildings would have looked like when they functioned. ﻿

Time: About 90 minutes

Difficulty: Easy walking. The two flights of stairs to the observation area on the roof of the mosque are quite steep.﻿﻿

Times: The archeological site is open 8.00 AM-4.00 PM in the winter and until 5.00 PM during the summer. There is no entrance fee. The﻿ synagogue is open for prayer Sunday through Wednesday and on Shabbat﻿ ﻿except between the hours 2:00 AM-4:00 AM. There are WC's close to the entrance.﻿ Information about tours arranged by the park are available at mh-shomron@npa.org.il or by calling 03 794-2481.﻿

Public transport: Enter "Nebi Samuel National Park" into Moovit.﻿ The nearest bus stop is at Tzomet Nebi Samuel and is about an 8-minute walk away. Buses numbers 131 and 132 leave from Binyanei Ha'umah in Jerusalem. ﻿﻿

Directions and parking: Enter "Nebi Samuel National Park" into Waze. ﻿The parking lot is at the entrance to the park.

Security: Nebi Samuel is beyond the Green Line but within the security barrier. It is a popular place for visiting and prayer. The Arab villagers have the reputation of being very friendly to visitors.﻿﻿

SAMUEL-TERRITORY

According to the signpost on the main road, this is where the prophet Samuel is buried. However, this is very doubtful. The Book of Samuel records that Samuel was buried in his hometown of Ramah (Samuel 25:1, 28:3). Ramah is mentioned a number of times in the Bible and may well have been where the Arab village of Er-Ram is today, about 8 Km north of Jerusalem. His family were Levites, and Ramah was a Levite town within the tribal territory of Benjamin.

It has been suggested that Nebi Samuel is the site of the ancient town of Mitzpah. If this is correct, then Samuel would have visited here frequently. From his hometown Ramah, Samuel used to make a yearly circuit within the tribal territories of Benjamin and Ephraim to adjudicate cases, and this included Mitzpah: " And from year to year he would set forth and go around to Bethel, and Gilgal and Mitzpah, and he would judge Israel in all these places. And his return was to Ramah, for there was his house..... (I Samuel 7:16-17). That Nebi Samuel was once Mitzpah fits geographically with the area in which Samuel functioned. Mitzpah also means a lookout in Hebrew, and Nebi Samuel is certainly a lookout, having the highest elevation in the area. There is also a spring, which would have permitted the development of a town here. On the other hand, while excavations have found evidence of settlement from First and Second Temple periods, no ruins have been found here from the time of the Judges.

﻿The tradition that this is the burial site of Samuel probably arose in Byzantine times, as the Christians were keen on linking stories in the Bible to Jerusalem and its approaches.

Some of the ruins here are Crusader. The Crusaders set up a network of way-stations for Christian pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem during the time of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099 to 1187 CE). Initially, a church and monastery were here. The fortress was added in the 12th century. The ruins of the fortress and its hostel can be seen on the right as you enter the park. When the Moslems took over the Crusader kingdom, they built a mosque, although the present mosque, which was built on top of Crusader ruins, dates from the 18th century.

Because of its elevation, Nebi Samuel has been used as a staging point for attacks on Jerusalem. The Jordanians fired shells from here during the siege of Jerusalem during Israel's War of Independence. The Palmach attempted to capture the height, but were unsuccessful, ﻿and it remained in Jordanian hands until the 1967 Six Day War.

The walk:

From the entrance to the site, cross over the bridge. Walk to the right of the mosque. From here you can see that the mosque is built on a wall, this being the wall of the Crusader fortress. Continue to the back of the mosque to view the ruins of the entrance to the fortress.

Descend to the orchard via a path on the far right, passing through an open gate. The orchard is planted on terraces, and contains mulberry, olive and fig trees. There are picnic benches throughout the orchard. Hanna’s Spring is at the bottom of the park within a cave. There is no pool here and the water is quite shallow.

On your return, take the path to the left to examine the ruins of the Crusader hostel for pilgrims.

The highlight of this site is the views of Jerusalem and north of Jerusalem, including as far away as Ramallah, from the roof of the mosque. Enter the mosque. The stairs to the roof are on your immediate left.

After returning to ground level, you can visit Samuel’s tomb by passing through the doorway on the far right that descends to the synagogue. The tomb was originally in a cave carved into a rock beneath the main building. There are separate entrances for men and women.

If you are up to more archeology, there are ruins from the Greek period to the west of the mosque.

The 18th century mosque containing the presumed tomb of the prophet Samuel is built on the ruins of the Crusader fortress.

This is what you came for - the view of nearby Ramot and Jerusalem from the roof of the mosque.